People who bought this also bought...

True Stories

Selected Non-Fiction

By:
Helen Garner

Narrated by:
Helen Garner

Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
35

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
30

Story

5 out of 5 stars
30

Helen Garner visits the morgue, and goes cruising on a Russian ship. She sees women giving birth, and gets the sack for teaching her students about sex. She attends a school dance and a gun show. She writes about dreaming, about turning 50 and the storm caused by The First Stone. Her story on the murder of the two-year-old Daniel Valerio wins her a Walkley Award.

5 out of 5 stars

Written & read by Helen Garner

By
Ms S J Hutchison
on
01-01-2018

Cosmo Cosmolino

By:
Helen Garner

Narrated by:
Kate Hood

Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins

Unabridged

Overall

3.5 out of 5 stars
6

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
5

Story

4 out of 5 stars
4

He straightened his spine, raised his head, and extended his gun arm towards me in a slow, vertical arc. I saw then what he was, and stood still in front of him, for he was here on business. He was a small, serious, stone-eyed angel of mercy. Janet is a skeptic, a journalist; Maxine revels in New Age fantasies; and Ray, a drifter, is a born-again Christian. The common ground is the house they share. But their fragile domestic balance is about to explode amid the smashing of ukeleles, the unexpected ascension of an angel and a sudden shower of jonquils.

Any Ordinary Day

Blindsides, Resilience and What Happens After the Worst Day of Your Life

By:
Leigh Sales

Narrated by:
Leigh Sales

Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins

Unabridged

Overall

5 out of 5 stars
919

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
822

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
815

As a journalist, Leigh Sales often encounters people experiencing the worst moments of their lives in the full glare of the media. But one particular string of bad news stories - and a terrifying brush with her own mortality - sent her looking for answers about how vulnerable each of us is to a life-changing event. What are our chances of actually experiencing one? What do we fear most and why? And when the worst does happen, what comes next? In this wise and layered audiobook, Leigh talks intimately with people who've faced the unimaginable, from terrorism to natural disaster to simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

5 out of 5 stars

Riveting

By
Mrs. J. C. Bodnarchuk
on
06-10-2018

Boy Swallows Universe

By:
Trent Dalton

Narrated by:
Stig Wemyss

Length: 16 hrs and 42 mins

Unabridged

Overall

5 out of 5 stars
964

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
888

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
893

Brisbane, 1983: A lost father, a mute brother, a mum in jail, a heroin dealer for a stepfather and a notorious criminal for a babysitter. It's not as if Eli's life isn't complicated enough already. He's just trying to follow his heart, learning what it takes to be a good man, but life just keeps throwing obstacles in the way - not least of which is Tytus Broz, legendary Brisbane drug dealer. But Eli's life is about to get a whole lot more serious. He's about to fall in love. And oh yeah, he has to break into Boggo Road Gaol on Christmas Day, to save his mum.

5 out of 5 stars

Exceptional

By
Al
on
01-07-2018

The Shepherd's Hut

By:
Tim Winton

Narrated by:
Kate Mulvany

Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
570

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
533

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
530

Jaxie dreads going home. His mum’s dead. The old man bashes him without mercy, and he wishes he was an orphan. And then, in one terrible moment, his life is stripped to little more than what he can carry and how he can keep himself alive. There’s just one person left in the world who understands him and what he still dares to hope for. But to reach her he’ll have to cross the vast saltlands on a trek that only a dreamer or a fugitive would attempt.

5 out of 5 stars

Bloody ripper!

By
Jan
on
02-04-2018

Bridge of Clay

By:
Markus Zusak

Narrated by:
Markus Zusak

Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
162

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
153

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
152

The Dunbar boys bring each other up in a house run by their own rules. A family of ramshackle tragedy - their mother is dead, their father has fled - they love and fight and learn to reckon with the adult world. It is Clay, the quiet one, who will build a bridge - for his family, for his past, for his sins. He's building a bridge to transcend humanness. To survive. A miracle and nothing less.

5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding

By
Hamish B.
on
16-12-2018

True Stories

Selected Non-Fiction

By:
Helen Garner

Narrated by:
Helen Garner

Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
35

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
30

Story

5 out of 5 stars
30

Helen Garner visits the morgue, and goes cruising on a Russian ship. She sees women giving birth, and gets the sack for teaching her students about sex. She attends a school dance and a gun show. She writes about dreaming, about turning 50 and the storm caused by The First Stone. Her story on the murder of the two-year-old Daniel Valerio wins her a Walkley Award.

5 out of 5 stars

Written & read by Helen Garner

By
Ms S J Hutchison
on
01-01-2018

Cosmo Cosmolino

By:
Helen Garner

Narrated by:
Kate Hood

Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins

Unabridged

Overall

3.5 out of 5 stars
6

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
5

Story

4 out of 5 stars
4

He straightened his spine, raised his head, and extended his gun arm towards me in a slow, vertical arc. I saw then what he was, and stood still in front of him, for he was here on business. He was a small, serious, stone-eyed angel of mercy. Janet is a skeptic, a journalist; Maxine revels in New Age fantasies; and Ray, a drifter, is a born-again Christian. The common ground is the house they share. But their fragile domestic balance is about to explode amid the smashing of ukeleles, the unexpected ascension of an angel and a sudden shower of jonquils.

Any Ordinary Day

Blindsides, Resilience and What Happens After the Worst Day of Your Life

By:
Leigh Sales

Narrated by:
Leigh Sales

Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins

Unabridged

Overall

5 out of 5 stars
919

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
822

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
815

As a journalist, Leigh Sales often encounters people experiencing the worst moments of their lives in the full glare of the media. But one particular string of bad news stories - and a terrifying brush with her own mortality - sent her looking for answers about how vulnerable each of us is to a life-changing event. What are our chances of actually experiencing one? What do we fear most and why? And when the worst does happen, what comes next? In this wise and layered audiobook, Leigh talks intimately with people who've faced the unimaginable, from terrorism to natural disaster to simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

5 out of 5 stars

Riveting

By
Mrs. J. C. Bodnarchuk
on
06-10-2018

Boy Swallows Universe

By:
Trent Dalton

Narrated by:
Stig Wemyss

Length: 16 hrs and 42 mins

Unabridged

Overall

5 out of 5 stars
964

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
888

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
893

Brisbane, 1983: A lost father, a mute brother, a mum in jail, a heroin dealer for a stepfather and a notorious criminal for a babysitter. It's not as if Eli's life isn't complicated enough already. He's just trying to follow his heart, learning what it takes to be a good man, but life just keeps throwing obstacles in the way - not least of which is Tytus Broz, legendary Brisbane drug dealer. But Eli's life is about to get a whole lot more serious. He's about to fall in love. And oh yeah, he has to break into Boggo Road Gaol on Christmas Day, to save his mum.

5 out of 5 stars

Exceptional

By
Al
on
01-07-2018

The Shepherd's Hut

By:
Tim Winton

Narrated by:
Kate Mulvany

Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
570

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
533

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
530

Jaxie dreads going home. His mum’s dead. The old man bashes him without mercy, and he wishes he was an orphan. And then, in one terrible moment, his life is stripped to little more than what he can carry and how he can keep himself alive. There’s just one person left in the world who understands him and what he still dares to hope for. But to reach her he’ll have to cross the vast saltlands on a trek that only a dreamer or a fugitive would attempt.

5 out of 5 stars

Bloody ripper!

By
Jan
on
02-04-2018

Bridge of Clay

By:
Markus Zusak

Narrated by:
Markus Zusak

Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
162

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
153

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
152

The Dunbar boys bring each other up in a house run by their own rules. A family of ramshackle tragedy - their mother is dead, their father has fled - they love and fight and learn to reckon with the adult world. It is Clay, the quiet one, who will build a bridge - for his family, for his past, for his sins. He's building a bridge to transcend humanness. To survive. A miracle and nothing less.

5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding

By
Hamish B.
on
16-12-2018

One Life

My Mother's Story

By:
Kate Grenville

Narrated by:
Kate Grenville

Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
74

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
67

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
69

Nance was a week short of her sixth birthday when she and Frank were roused out of bed in the dark and lifted into the buggy, squashed in with bedding, the cooking pots rattling around in the back, and her mother shouting back towards the house, 'Good-bye, Rothsay, I hope I never see you again!' When Kate Grenville’s mother died, she left behind many fragments of memoir. These were the starting point for
One Life, the story of a woman whose life spanned a century of tumult and change.

4 out of 5 stars

Not your usual tale of your mother

By
Stan
on
07-09-2015

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

By:
Gail Honeyman

Narrated by:
Cathleen McCarron

Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
3,516

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
3,237

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
3,226

Eleanor Oliphant has learned how to survive - but not how to live. Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend. Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world....

5 out of 5 stars

So much better than completely fine

By
Bec
on
29-10-2017

The Trauma Cleaner

By:
Sarah Krasnostein

Narrated by:
Rachael Tidd

Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,424

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,328

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,329

Sandra Pankhurst founded her trauma cleaning business to help people whose emotional scars are written on their houses. From the forgotten flat of a drug addict, to the infested home of a hoarder, Sandra enters properties and lives at the same time. But few of the people she looks after know anything of the complexity of Sandra's own life. Raised in an uncaring home, Sandra's miraculous gift for warmth and humour in the face of unspeakable personal tragedy, mark her out as a one-off and make this biography unmissable.

5 out of 5 stars

A brilliant narrative masterly voiced

By
Philip
on
19-04-2018

Light and Shadow

Memoirs of a Spy's Son

By:
Mark Colvin

Narrated by:
Mark Colvin

Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
237

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
216

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
216

Mark Colvin is a broadcasting legend. He is the voice of ABC Radio’s leading current affairs program PM; he was a founding broadcaster for the groundbreaking youth station Double J; he initiated The World Today program; and he’s one of the most popular and influential journalists in the twittersphere. Mark has been covering local and global events for more than four decades. He has reported on wars, royal weddings and everything in between. In the midst of all this he discovered that his father was an MI6 spy.

3 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable

By
Liv
on
26-08-2017

The Lost Man

By:
Jane Harper

Narrated by:
Steve Shanahan

Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
491

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
465

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
466

Three brothers, one death, a fenceline stretching to the horizon. Two brothers meet at the border of their vast cattle properties under the unrelenting sun of outback Queensland. They are at the stockman's grave, a landmark so old, no one can remember who is buried there. But today, the scant shadow it casts was the last hope for their middle brother, Cameron. The Bright family's quiet existence is thrown into grief and anguish. Something had been troubling Cam. Did he lose hope and walk to his death? Because if he didn't, the isolation of the outback leaves few suspects....

5 out of 5 stars

Congratulations

By
Anonymous User
on
03-11-2018

Becoming

By:
Michelle Obama

Narrated by:
Michelle Obama

Length: 19 hrs and 3 mins

Unabridged

Overall

5 out of 5 stars
2,350

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
2,108

Story

5 out of 5 stars
2,101

In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites listeners into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her - from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it - in her own words and on her own terms.

5 out of 5 stars

As you’d expect

By
Amazon Customer
on
19-11-2018

The Wife Drought

By:
Annabel Crabb

Narrated by:
Annabel Crabb

Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins

Unabridged

Overall

5 out of 5 stars
240

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
214

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
211

'I need a wife'. It's a common joke among women juggling work and family, but it's no joke. Having a spouse who takes care of things at home is a godsend on the domestic front and an asset on the work front and is an advantage enjoyed by vastly more men than women. Full of candid and funny stories from politics and the media,
The Wife Drought shares intriguing research about the attitudes pulsing beneath the surface of egalitarian Australia.

5 out of 5 stars

A laugh when maybe it shouldn't be.

By
Anonymous User
on
28-03-2018

Milkman

By:
Anna Burns

Narrated by:
Bríd Brennan

Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
319

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
299

Story

4 out of 5 stars
298

In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes 'interesting'. The last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed and to be noticed is dangerous. Milkman is a tale of gossip and hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. It is the story of inaction with enormous consequences.

5 out of 5 stars

magic

By
Dr. Sue Tait
on
12-09-2018

Normal People

By:
Sally Rooney

Narrated by:
Aoife McMahon

Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
237

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
216

Story

4 out of 5 stars
215

Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in rural Ireland. The similarities end there; they are from very different worlds. When they both earn places at Trinity College in Dublin, a connection that has grown between them lasts long into the following years. This is an exquisite love story about how a person can change another person's life - a simple yet profound realisation that unfolds beautifully over the course of the novel. It tells us how difficult it is to talk about how we feel and it tells us - blazingly - about cycles of domination, legitimacy and privilege.

5 out of 5 stars

Right with them

By
Anonymous User
on
09-10-2018

Educated

By:
Tara Westover

Narrated by:
Julia Whelan

Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins

Unabridged

Overall

5 out of 5 stars
626

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
576

Story

5 out of 5 stars
572

Tara Westover and her family grew up preparing for the End of Days but, according to the government, she didn’t exist. She hadn’t been registered for a birth certificate. She had no school records because she’d never set foot in a classroom, and no medical records because her father didn’t believe in hospitals. As she grew older, her father became more radical and her brother more violent. At 16, Tara knew she had to leave home. In doing so she discovered both the transformative power of education, and the price she had to pay for it.

5 out of 5 stars

LOVE in this family = loyalty to a bipolar father

By
Zoonda
on
08-11-2018

The Arsonist

By:
Chloe Hooper

Narrated by:
Sybilla Budd

Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
91

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
86

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
84

The Arsonist takes listeners inside the hunt for a fire-lighter. After Black Saturday, a February 2009 day marked by 47 degree heat and firestorms, arson squad detectives arrived at a plantation on the edge of a 26,000-hectare burn site. Eleven people had just been killed and hundreds made homeless. Here, in the Latrobe Valley, where Victoria's electricity is generated, and the rates of unemployment, crime and domestic abuse are the highest in the state, more than 30 people were known to police as firebugs. But the detectives soon found themselves on the trail of a man they didn't know.

5 out of 5 stars

Incredibly powerful - wow.

By
Bookgirl
on
23-10-2018

My Name Is Lucy Barton

By:
Elizabeth Strout

Narrated by:
Kimberly Farr

Length: 4 hrs and 11 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
85

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
79

Story

4 out of 5 stars
81

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of
My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout, read by Kimberly Farr. A mother comes to visit her daughter in hospital after having not seen her in many years.

5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant book and brilliant performance

By
Gabrielle
on
21-05-2017

Publisher's Summary

A collection of essays from award-winning author Helen Garner.

I pedal over to Kensington just after dark. As I roll along the lane towards the railway underpass, a young Asian woman on her way home from the station walks out of the tunnel towards me. After she passes there's a stillness, a moment of silent freshness that feels like spring.

Helen Garner is one of Australia's greatest writers. Her short nonfiction has enormous range. Spanning 15 years of work, Everywhere I Look is an audiobook full of unexpected moments, sudden shafts of light, piercing intuition, flashes of anger and incidental humour. It takes us from backstage at the ballet to the trial of a woman for the murder of her newborn baby. It moves effortlessly from the significance of moving house to the pleasure of rereading Pride and Prejudice.

Everywhere I Look includes Garner's famous and controversial essay on the insults of age, her deeply moving tribute to her mother and extracts from her diaries, which have been part of her working life for as long as she has been a writer.

Everywhere I Look glows with insight. It is filled with the wisdom of life.

I <3 Helen Garner

Any additional comments?

Let me preface this review by saying I love Helen Garner, so it is completely biased. I've seen Helen speak a number of times, and she has completely won me over. I find her such an intriguing person, and in so many ways she is nothing like what you would expect. So when I discovered that she narrates the audio edition of Everywhere I Look I knew I had to listen to it – and it did not disappoint. The short personal essays in Everywhere I Look are funny, self deprecating, moving and insightful. I particularly loved the glimpses into her family life (who wouldn't want Helen Garner as a grandma!?) and her story about reading Pride & Prejudice. I'm sure this book would "read" just as well, but having Helen Garner read these stories to you lets you imagine, even more than you already do, what it would be like to be an intimate part of Helen's life.

Will make you laugh and cry

Love Helen's description of such everyday and mundane things. Something you've realised you've always noticed but never could quite put into words. Found myself nodding emphatically quite a lot. A lovely collection of topics.

Wonderful read

I loved listening to Helen Garner reflect on the some of the episodes and small moments in her life. Astute observations that really resonated with me. I love the way she writes, and having Garner, herself narrating meant that I always read it it in the way she intended. (Hooray for the authors who narrate their own work!!!)

Brilliant and refreshing in all respects

The essays are written with great clarity and a generous eye to humankind. They were informative and very interesting. The best outcome from a book like this is that I want to read the books and movies it references.